When penniless businessman Mr Bedford retreats to the Kent coast to write a play, he meets by chance the brilliant Dr Cavor, an absent-minded scientist on the brink of developing a material that blocks gravity. Cavor soon succeeds in his experiments, only to tell a stunned Bedford the invention makes possible one of the oldest dreams of humanity: a journey to the moon.

With Bedford motivated by money, and Cavor by the desire for knowledge, the two embark on the expedition. But neither are prepared for what they find - a world of freezing nights, boiling days and sinister alien life, on which they may be trapped forever.

Born in 1866 in Bromley, England, to a poor family, Herbert George Wells began as an apprentice at the age of 14, but educated himself on his own, received a scholarship (1884), and specialized in biology at the University of London, from which he graduated in 1888.

Having become a teacher, but still without money, he will ask journalism for additional resources.

His first book is a work of biology, his second a novel: La Machine à explorer le temps (1895), which was an immediate success.

One of the pioneers, with Jules Verne, of the novel of anticipation, Wells is also a polemist, believing in progress through science.

These trends are reflected throughout a work that includes nearly 50 novels, tales, short stories and essays.

H. G. Wells died in London on August 13, 1946.